A challenging project with demanding requirements, resulting in a unique solution never before used in the area, that’s what the designers and builders of the Aliante Animal Hospital faced. And they chose to Expect More to bring the project to life.
The Aliante Animal Hospital is a fairly unique building, constructed with a very unique product. The building contains many different rooms that serve a variety of purposes and have to stand up to heavy and harsh use from a very diverse clientele of four-legged friends, all while maintaining a comfortable working environment for the staff, customers and patients.
The facility represented the perfect challenge for the Hirschi Masonry team to show its stuff!
The project is featured in the current (October 2016) issue of the quarterly CMU Profiles in Architecture from the Concrete Masonry Association of California and Nevada.
The Aliante Animal Hospital is a 6,400 square-foot facility with a heavy emphasis on boarding. The hospital portion contains seven exam rooms, a four-station treatment area with two additional dental stations, and separate rooms for endoscopy, surgery, x-ray, isolation, recovery and cat hospitalization. The pharmacy and a private doctor work area are located between the exam and treatment rooms to allow easy accessibility for doctors and assistants.
The designers needed a product that could withstand the rigors of housing our furry, four-legged friends. But they also needed to find an energy-efficient solution that would provide a pleasant atmosphere in which to offer treatment and housing.
The durability of CMU made it a natural choice. The specific CMU product selected met the energy efficiency requirements.
The design of the hospital includes all concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls (interior and exterior) and sealed/stained concrete floors in public areas. CMU was specifically selected for its durability in this high-abuse environment. Through a collaborative effort of Oldcastle Architectural West, SH Architecture and Mendenhall Smith Structural Engineers, an Integra Wall System was utilized to maximize energy efficiency, while maintaining the durability requested by the ownership team.
The Integra Wall System is “a post-tensioned concrete masonry wall unit”, with some unique characteristics all its own, including the shapes of the CMU. The system “uses masonry units that are usually open on both ends and a reduced center web to reduce thermal bridging.”
The Aliante Animal Hospital was the first commercial Integra Wall System project in Las Vegas and the results were outstanding. The team at Hirschi Masonry once again faced the challenge presented by a unique project and lived up to its slogan – Expect More.
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